The lonely ore-cart of Seigoshi Mine
Seigoshi mine hides its secrets well. Fronted by a live builder’s yard, shielded by a fence with a live antenna inside, overgrown, ramshackle, and falling down- if you can plough through all of that you get to the good stuff- lonely mine carts, ancient bottles of whiskey, LOST-like hatches complete with beeping machinery, and store rooms filled with boxes of TNT.
Waiting.
I don’t know very much about Seigoshi mine. It was once a silver mine, and must have closed down at least 40 years ago, possibly longer, as none of the other mines from the same era were built solely in wood. Seigoshi is all wood, though still generally sturdy. The mineral site mindat.org tells me this:
Silver mine in altered volcanic rocks (propylitized Miocene andesite). A roadcut next to the mine was briefly famous for zeolite specimens (including yugawaralite crystals up to 3cm long), but is now completely covered with concrete to prevent erosion.
As with other sites (Taro springs to mind), this place had been cannibalized into a semi-live state. Some kind of research project was going on, with live antennas inside a fence controlled by ancient computer equipment in a half-padlocked room, beeping.
It was odd. The door was jammed shut but not on the padlock when we approached it, requiring a little tugging to open. Inside we all became quite nervous, worried the place might open up like Tracy island and we’d be apprehended by minions of some evil genius. We scarpered.
At the other end was the mine shaft, and processing factory. JC rolled the mine-cart along.
“Ho hee ho. Ho hee ho. The man makes us work all day.”
Out of color into grey.
In a store room Mike found boxes labeled TNT. I didn’t look too closely at those- afraid of a Dr. Artz-like end. Paul found one box which contained a lovingly polished steam-punk ray gun, or something quite similar. I considered taking it, but it looked very heavy, and that stuff is just junk out of context anyway.
Stores.
Ancient whiskey.
What we climbed down.
The fence, antennae. To the right, an overgrown yacht.
FACTFILE
Location – Izu, Japan.
Entry - Lots of climbing, takes some effort, in back of an active builder’s yard.
Highlights – Mine cart, store rooms, the hatch.
RUINS / HAIKYO
You can see all MJG’s Ruins / Haikyo explorations here:
Inside the storeroom is one of your better haikyo shots. The staircases to enter look like the setting for a video game.
Didn’t realize you hadn’t posted this yet! Is the last unposted haikyo from the Shimoda trip?
Crisp and sharp shots, very nice!
Jason- Cheers, seems like you usually like the simplest of shots.
Can- Thanks, and one more to go- Sports World! That’s next week. I put all these off because of our interlaced posting schedule for Iwate.
Like the shot of the Whiskey looks like a C.G image, the reflection off the telephone is cool too.
You shoulda broke open the whiskey and had a few shots.
Adrian- Cheers, CG-esque cos of HDR.
Tornadoes- Ha, probably too strong for me.
[...] Seigoshi mine cart. [...]
I just visited this mine a few days ago. i didn’t get into the mine shaft, but that wooden building was amazing, i was inside by myself though and i was so scared it was all going to collapse on me >__<
Erichhh- I know the feeling- as we were walking down the wooden ladders we were all clinging to the railings and bracing our weight as best we could, in case the slats gave way. It`s an old place.